Making It Right (Most Likely To #3)

As liberating as it was to leave River Bend, the feeling faded quickly as the chains started to slowly link back together the closer Jo came to landing.

Rain met her return, which was fitting.

Zoe waved from the doors of baggage claim, not that Jo had anything but her carry-on backpack for luggage.

“Now look who is jet-setting across the country,” Zoe teased with a hug.

“I don’t have frequent flyer miles like you.”

Zoe might be dressed in jeans, a button-up shirt, and a jacket, but she looked like she’d just stepped through the pages of a fashion magazine. The contrast between how she dressed now and when they were kids always stunned Jo when she saw it after a week away.

“Tell me you had fun.”

Jo smiled. “I had fun.”

Zoe narrowed her eyes. “So Agent Hottie stepped up?”

Jo’s smile grew. “Yes, he did.” She kept the details to herself.

Her friend blew out a breath and turned toward the doors of the airport and out to the curb, where some travelers were waiting for rides. “Good. Otherwise I was going to have to book you another flight this spring, and I don’t think River Bend would survive it.”

“Has it been bad?”

“From my perspective. Cherie and Deputy Emery nearly came to blows. One of the neighbors called Luke because the yelling overpowered that of the dogs barking.”

Jo ducked into her jacket as they crossed to the covered parking lot. The rain was coming down steadily, which made her wonder what the road conditions were in River Bend. Then again, River Bend was two hours away, and the weather could be clear there. Not that her weather app said it was. “I thought I had that all cleared up. Cherie was supposed to keep the dogs inside at night.”

“Which I think she was doing, but according to Emery, a complaint came in during the day, so he had to go over and put his foot down.”

Jo checked her messages on her cell phone. Nothing from Glynis. “When did this happen?”

“Yesterday.”

“Emery called the pound in Waterville—”

“He what?” Jo interrupted.

“Said he had no choice.”

“He had a choice,” Jo muttered. She’d have to have a talk with the man. Something she seldom did unless forced to. He was twice her age and had worked under her dad. He didn’t adjust to her being boss for some time, and now, so long as she didn’t go out of her way to tell him what to do, they worked well together.

“That’s what the Millers thought. Either way, they came in and cited her, gave her a big fine, and told her she had two weeks to find homes for four of her dogs.”

“Not the puppies?”

“The puppies would need to go, too, but not until the eight-week mark.”

Zoe opened the back of her SUV, and Jo tossed her backpack inside before climbing into the passenger seat.

“What a mess,” Jo said once she was buckled in.

“Yeah. The woman has too many dogs, we all know that, but how Emery went about it was just wrong.”

“He has the law on his side, but I can’t disagree. If she hadn’t let her dog get knocked up, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Zoe backed out of the parking spot and worked her way out of the lot.

“Everyone knows Emery hates animals.”

“His bias shouldn’t come into play,” Jo said.

Zoe offered a smile. “I’m glad you’re back.”

Jo groaned. “Any other messes I’m walking into?”

“There’s a big pothole in front of Sam’s diner.”

“Pothole?”

“Almost like a sinkhole.”

Great!

“Anything else?”

“Yeah . . . I think Mel is pregnant.”

Jo lost air turning her head. “She’s what?”

Zoe lifted her palm in the air. “She hasn’t said anything to me, not sure why . . . but she was in the kitchen helping me with some of the pastries for the guests, and I saw her scarf two éclairs, half a bag of potato chips, and then she opened a jar of pickled beets and finished the thing with a fork and a glass of milk.”

Jo winced at the thought of how all that would taste together. “That’s horrific.”

Zoe nodded. “An hour later she was talking about dinner.”

Yep, sounded like something was hormonally off with their friend. “I wonder why the secret.”

“Maybe she wants to tell us together.”

That sounded like Mel. She was the pleaser, and since she was already mother to Hope, probably familiar enough with the whole pregnant thing to know when to tell the world and when to wait.

“So do we play dumb and wait, or do we confront her?”

“Let’s wait, see what happens.”

Jo shrugged.

They pulled onto the interstate for a brief while before merging onto the highway that would take them home. The windshield wipers flapped against the glass with a steady beat that reminded her of dancing with Gill the night before.

When she’d rolled over in the morning as her alarm rang, she was stunned to find Gill still curled up in her bed.

She couldn’t remember the last time someone had spent the night with her. It had to have been before her father had died.

There Gill was, naked, semiaroused, and pulling her close when she tried to slip out of bed.

They’d made love slowly, and then she rushed her shower to make sure she would make her flight in time.

He told her he’d see her before she could miss him.

She told him she never missed men.

“We’ll see about that,” had been his response.

Arrogant man.

“What is that look on your face?” Zoe asked, glancing her way from the driver’s seat.

Jo shook her head.

“Don’t even try to keep crap from me. I tell you everything.”

And Zoe did, from her and Luke’s sexcapades to the proper way to cut herbs to retain their flavor. Not that Jo cared, her herbs came from a jar like they should.

Jo let her grin stay. “I met someone.”

Zoe’s smile dropped. “As in met someone, met someone . . . or just hooked up with someone you’ll never see again?”

Gill’s voice hummed in her head. “You’ll see me before you miss me.”

“Shauna’s partner.”

Zoe squealed and pounded the steering wheel in her excitement. “Your someone is Agent McHottie?”

“Yeah.”

While Jo gave the short version of Gill, knowing full well she’d have to go over all the details again with Mel and Zoe together, Jo realized Gill was wrong . . . she already missed him.



For years, Jo thought her answering machine was a waste of electricity.

When she dropped her bag on her couch and hit the blinking button on the machine, she was shocked to hear she had fifteen messages.